Sean Fieler
Sean M. Fieler (born 1972 or 1973) is an American hedge fund manager and political donor known for his backing of religious and conservative causes, especially those aligned with his Catholic faith.[1] He is chair of the American Principles Project, a conservative think tank.
Life and career
While living in New York City after his college graduation, his mother encouraged him to become more active in the Catholic Church.[1] An early experience with philanthropy was his donations to a college friend, Jon Fielder, who left for a medical mission in Kenya in 2002 and worked with Christian churches to offer medical services in Africa.[1][2] Fieler made charitable and political donations through his Chiaroscuro Foundation from 2006 until 2019, and he has been a major donor to the American Principles Project, a conservative think tank, and its chairman.[1] By 2015, he was known as an "ideologically motivated funder" of conservative Catholic groups, according to Inside Philanthropy.[3][4]
Nonprofit leadership
Chiaroscuro Foundation
From 2015 to 2017, the foundation provided $1.79 million to the developers of FEMM, a menstruation tracking app which has been promoted by the Catholic Church.[5][6] In 2019, The Obria Group, which runs crisis pregnancy centers in the U.S., included the usage of FEMM in its proposal for Title X funds for birth control services later approved by the Donald Trump administration.[5][7] Fieler has sat on the board of the FEMM Foundation, which runs the app.[6] Fieler led the Chiaroscuro Foundation until 2019.[1] He subsequently moved his finances to a donor-advised fund, the Chiaroscuro Fund, managed by the Knights of Columbus Charitable Fund (the latter of which he serves as chairman).[1][8][9]
American Principles Project
Other political contributions and advocacy
Political campaigns
Abortion
Fieler has served as a board member of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.[1][9] He has supported the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists and Students for Life.[1] Fieler credited former President Donald Trump's appointments to the Supreme Court for bringing about the 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization to reverse the constitutional protections for the right to have an abortion afforded by Roe v. Wade.[1] He said the following year: "To have Roe overturned is just fantastic."[1]
Assisted suicide
Fieler provided $475,000 out of the total $730,000 raised by the Massachusetts Alliance Against Doctor Prescribed Suicide, a group formed to oppose a 2013 ballot initiative in Massachusetts legalizing physician-assisted suicide which ultimately narrowly failed to pass.[10]: 33 [11]
Influence
In The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Church historian Massimo Faggioli of Villanova University criticized Fieler for his alleged influence on the Catholic Church in the United States through his backing of conservative Catholic organizations.[12] Faggioli contended that many of these conservative nonprofits were involved in a recent ideological division between all Catholics in which philanthropy has played a significant role.[12] He said that the church had also been vying for money from donors to conservative nonprofits, leading these donors' interests to have an outsized influence on the church compared to the interests of the church itself.[12] In response, Fieler denied that his philanthropy had made the church more conservative, and described the implication as "kind of crazy."[12]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedChronicle 2023 - Powerful - ↑ Munemo, Julia (November 28, 2016). "From Williams to Africa". Williams College. Archived from the original on August 18, 2023. Retrieved August 18, 2023.
- ↑ Stewart, Katherine (March 9, 2021). "How Big Money Is Dividing American Catholicism". The New Republic. Retrieved September 24, 2023.
- ↑ Adeniji, Ade (October 16, 2015). "Sean Fieler's Philanthropy: The Hedge Funder Who Promotes Conservative Values". Inside Philanthropy. Retrieved September 24, 2023.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Cha, Ariana Eunjung (July 29, 2019). "New federally funded clinics emphasize abstinence, natural family planning". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 23, 2023. Retrieved August 16, 2023.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Glenza, Jessica (May 30, 2019). "Revealed: women's fertility app is funded by anti-abortion campaigners". The Guardian. Archived from the original on August 16, 2023. Retrieved August 16, 2023.
- ↑ Glenza, Jessica (July 29, 2019). "Anti-abortion group uses US federal grants to push controversial fertility app". The Guardian. Archived from the original on August 16, 2023. Retrieved August 16, 2023.
- ↑ Rojc, Philip (July 6, 2022). "Crusaders: The Philanthropic Funders That Helped Bring an End to Roe v. Wade". Inside Philanthropy. Archived from the original on August 8, 2022. Retrieved September 16, 2023.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 White, Christopher (April 8, 2021). "Major Catholic funders and power brokers spearhead voter suppression efforts". National Catholic Reporter. Retrieved September 16, 2023.
- ↑ Cunningham, Maurice T. (2014). "Defeating "Death with Dignity": Morality and Message in a Massachusetts Referendum". American Catholic Studies. 125 (2): 23–43. ISSN 2161-8542. JSTOR 44195784.
- ↑ Ring, Dan (November 30, 2012). "Big donations helped defeat doctor-assisted suicide in Massachusetts". MassLive. Archived from the original on August 17, 2023. Retrieved August 17, 2023.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedChronicle 2023 - Critics